hi i am in wiltshire united kingdom we recently had the nuptial flight day i have allways wanted to start a ant colony so i kept my eye out for this years nuptial flight i found a queen almost straight away and got her in a tube she had her wings so i thought she must not of mated yet so i found a winged male and put him in the test tube with her a day later the male died witch i thought was a good sign that they mated but now it has been two weeks and the queen still has her wings. so my question is how long after the queen has mated does she dispose of her wings ?

Hey Luke,I caught 8 Lasius Niger queens in one day (in the garden under cucumber leaves there was hundreds of them), after first 2-3 days every queen had a pile of brood. If they aren't stressed, they start laying eggs quickly. Just don't check on the queen often - two times a week is more than enough, leave her in dark place to calm down.

About mating - mating happens in mid-air, so putting a male and a queen in one test tube won't do any good. Male probably died because when You caught him, he was already mated with another queen. And queens don't always drop their wing off instantly, You can get brood while queen still has her wings.

luke wrote:Im catching them at the moment i have hundreds of them i allways thought they were hard to find being that people sell them

Somt catch them right next to nests if they are clumpes up they might not be mated. And dont keep them all in one container they will be stressed and may kill eaxh other. They also need water so look up how ro make a test tube set up. And unless you habe connections ro sell all those i wouldnt catch that many as you are lowing numbers in your community and it may affect numbers.in the years to follow. Just my opinion